Going to the gallows: a sonic biography

Abstract

When the tale of Francis Knorr, the baby farming murderess, went to air on ABC Radio National’s Soundproof as an experimental radio drama, it was a literal attempt to parallel an historical story with the lived present by playing two scenes at once. This was done by actors performing Knorr’s story and by going to the gallows with an Iranian musician and recording her music in the exact spot where the baby farming murderess was hanged. These two sound elements were then woven together to make the broadcast. The actors’ words came from an edited version of eyewitness newspaper accounts of Knorr’s execution on 15 January 1894. This article is a reflection on the successes and failures of the endeavour. It serves as a wider examination of factors that take historical biofictions into realms beyond prose and highlights the impacts of such interventions. Further, in keeping with the radio form, this investigation draws on sonic geography as a useful parallel methodology.